Getting Connected

Digitally…Socially…Spiritually

To each other – Enjoy some cinnamon roll French toast bake and help yourself to some juice! In a few minutes, we’ll get started with our sharing time using the Padlet found below!

✝Devotion

GRACE…

He’s called each of us by name into His Kingdom, not because of what we’ve done, but because of what Jesus did.

As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of The Reformation, read what Luther had to say in his sermons regarding grace…

“He who does not receive salvation purely through grace, independently of all good works, certainly will never secure it.”

“Truly, then, we are saved by grace alone, without works or other merit.”

“Notice [from John 3:16], all who believe have eternal life. That being true, believers certainly are just and holy without works. Works contribute nothing to justification. It is effected by pure grace richly poured out upon us.”

“We receive absolution [forgiveness] and grace at no cost or labor on our part, but not without cost and labor on the part of Christ.”

“Our salvation must exist, not in our righteousness, but…in Christ’s righteousness. …Let his righteousness and grace, not yours, be your refuge.”

Announcements & Review

1. Upcoming events:

Thenext workshop date is scheduled for Thursday, November 9.

Missouri Lutheran Church Workers Conference, November 15 -17. There are a few sessions about using technology in the classroom, especially Google apps. Be sure to check out the sectional listings!

#LuthEd Twitter chats take place on Monday evenings from 8:00-9:00CST throughout the school year.

2. As a TEC21 Workshop Program participant, you should have received some information by now from Concordia University–Nebraska pertaining to college credit opportunities. We’re very thankful to be able to partner in ministry with CUNE in this way. Many teachers have been blessed through this arrangement over the years. It’s something definitely worth considering!

For those who do decide to pursue this, the facilitators will use the following rubric to assign a letter grade after the final workshop – EDUC 513 Course Rubric. Take a few minutes to review the grading criteria. We look at it this way in that it’s simply applying your TEC21 take-a-ways in your classroom with your students following the workshops each month and plugging into our online Google+ TEC21 Educators community throughout the school year–both of which you’re doing as a part of this program any way. So, it’s just an added bonus to reward you for your efforts!

Remember that TEC21 is considered a second semester class- EDUC 513. To receive college credit, apply online between December 1, 2017 – January 31, 2018.

3. Wow! Look at how many Lutheran school teachers are now a part of the TEC21 Educators community! Isn’t it awesome what technology can afford us to do? This is powerful and a game changer for Lutheran educators today. It’ll enable us to support one another in-between workshops and for years and years to come

Any “How to” and “Why” questions regarding the Google+ community? How and/or why do I add a picture to my profile? How and/or why do I link a web page when I post? What does the +1 button mean? What happens when I do this +Brent Dieckhoff? How does the poll feature work and why might I use it? How do I manage notifications?

4. Let’s take some time to reflect on last month’s TEC21 Challenges and share experiences. What were some successes? Tell us about any challenges you faced?

Goals

1. Discover the value of digital storytelling.

2. Explore digital storytelling tools and resources to use with your students.

3. Identify a tool or resource to share with another teacher at your school.

“The question that must be asked every day is, ‘What is BEST for this learner?'” ~ George Couros

Digital Storytelling

Storytelling

What is digital storytelling?

How do we get started?

What are some different formats of digital storytelling?

Sometimes, it’s intimidating to get started, but the truth is, we only need is a…spark!

Traditional Book-Style Storytelling

When most students think of a story, they think, “book.” Before we lead them out of the box, so-to-speak, digital storytelling can look a lot like traditional books. Here is a link to a couple of examples…

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think.” ~ James Beattie

Little or No Prep Tools & Resources

ChatterPix is a user-friendly app that takes a simple photo and makes it talk. Students can upload pictures or take them straight from the app, draw a mouth on the object, and record their voice to have the image tell a story! (Grades K+)

Students can create unique videos with audio using a variety of fun characters, props, and backgrounds! (Grades K+)

With a simple interface, Shadow Puppet Edu offers a way for students to easily create their own stories. Users can customize photos and videos as well as provide narration and cool effects such as zooming and panning to their project (with supervision, Grades K+)

Toontastic 3D is a free, simple app to use with your lower elementary students. While it lacks other apps’ variety in graphics, it does serve as a tool to guide students through basic plot and story creation. (Grades K-8)

Available on all platforms, Book Creator is highly customizable. Students create quality digital books that are also available for publishing. A free trial and limited version app is available. (Grade 2+)

Fun app that allows students to create sock puppet stories! Characters, props, and backgrounds come to life as students narrate. The puppets automatically lip-sync to the student’s voice! (Pre-K and up)

From Tech & Learning, here is a list of their pick for sites and apps on this topic.

Storyboard That! is a digital storytelling tool that allows the user to bring a story to life through a comic-book-style format. Available as a free trial for teachers or a free basic, limited-use version. (Upper Grades)

This website offers students an opportunity to upload their own artwork, use their own voice, and artfully piece them together to form their own digital story. Check out the reasonable premium pricing for teachers, which includes 20 student accounts and other cool benefits. (All grades)

Another online tool for beautiful, polished stories. Teachers can create accounts for free. Students can choose graphics and clean-lined page templates to tell their story! Also a good resource for online reading. (All grades, teacher supervision for younger students)

A website that is truly free! Hooray! Students can create “traditional” digital books. After customizing pages, pictures, and text, students can have the option to publish and purchase their works. (All grades, teacher supervision for younger students)

Adobe Spark (formerly Adobe Voice) offers a professional looking product for as simple as it is to use. It provides free use pics to use in presentations and students can create a handful of different products. (Grade 2+, with instruction)

A Google app that can be used for stop motion, animation, and presentation. (Grade 2+)

Every November is National Novel Writing Month, and while our focus is digital storytelling, this site qualifies as an online tool to help your students tell a story through novel writing. A free resource, NaNoWriMo seeks to allow young writers to experience simply the joy of writing and to challenge them to create their story. Check out how to sign up as an educator here.

This awesome site offers students an interactive, animated storytelling option. With free templates, students and teachers can use this tool to create products across content areas. (Grade 4+)

Think outside the box and have your students try their hands at telling a story in a timeline. ReadWriteThink does an excellent job of helping students organize times, dates, and events into a printable and savable timeline. A planning sheet is available also. (Grade 2+)

An article by Common Sense Media outlining Internet safety practices and suggestions for age level instruction. Here are a couple of videos on the topic:

Project Development

Sharing! We are each other’s BEST resources

The TEC21 Facilitators read The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros this summer. The book was thought-provoking and inspiring, so we’ve decided to include a few of his quotes to our agendas throughout this year as food for thought.